Using the Internet to distribute electronic media content to consumers continues to grow in importance, but in some instances data delivery throughput detracts from the user experience. For instance, limited data throughput may cause a waiting period for a user after a piece of electronic media is demanded. For example, a user may experience one or more buffering “freezes” during playback of electronic media when different portions of a demanded piece of electronic media content are downloaded in parallel and playback begins before the entire piece of electronic media content is downloaded. In other words, playback may temporarily stop (i.e., temporarily freeze) if the speed of the playback outpaces that of the download. Alternatively, a user may be compelled to wait before playback while an entire demanded piece of electronic media is downloaded. While the latter approach avoids playback freeze, it requires a longer time between a request for the electronic media and playback of the electronic media. In each of the above examples, the user's experience of both the demanded content and the Internet data delivery system is impaired.
The increasing data rates of broadband wide-area networks have enabled users to access television programming using Internet protocol television (IPTV) services. However, when available bandwidth of the broadband wide-area network is limited, the user experience may be negatively impacted by delivery delay and/or playback freezing, as explained above. The situation in the IPTV context is further complicated by the fact that devices of widely varying capabilities may be used for IPTV playback. For example, these devices and/or the communication networks that deliver data to these devices may differ in bandwidth.